The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of Permanent Representatives from its member countries.[1] It was established by Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty and it is the only body in NATO that derives its authority explicitly from the Treaty.

The North Atlantic Treaty gave the NAC the power to set up subsidiary bodies for various policy functions, including a defense committee to implement other parts of the treaty, since 1952, the NAC has been in permanent session.[2] The NAC can be held at the Permanent Representative Level (PermReps), or can be composed of member states' Ministers of State, Defense, or Heads of Government, the NAC has the same powers regardless of the formation it meets under. The NAC meets twice a week: every Tuesday, for an informal lunch discussion; and every Wednesday for a decision-taking session. Usually, meetings occur amongst the Permanent Representatives who are the senior permanent member of each delegation and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank), the list of Permanent Representatives may be found on the NATO website.[3]

The 29 members of NATO have diplomatic missions to the organization through embassies in Belgium, the meetings of the NAC are chaired by the Secretary General and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority, each nation represented at the NAC table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions.

1.
Atlantic Council
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The Atlantic Council is a think tank in the field of international affairs. Founded in 1961, it provides a forum for political, business. It manages ten regional centers and functional programs related to international security and it is headquartered in Washington, D. C. It is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association, the Atlantic Council was founded with a mission to encourage the continuation of cooperation between North America and Europe that began after World War II. In its early years its work consisted largely of publishing policy papers and polling Europeans and Americans about their attitudes towards transatlantic and international cooperation. The Council early on found a niche as center for informal get-togethers of leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, with working to develop networks of continuing communication. The Atlantic Council works outside Europe and the US also and its Asian programs have expanded in recent years due to the war in Afghanistan and the new challenge of coordinating with India and China on climate change efforts. In February 2009, James L. Jones, then-chairman of the Atlantic Council, shinseki as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Anne-Marie Slaughter as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department. Four years later, Hagel stepped down to serve as US Secretary of Defense, gen. Brent Scowcroft served as interim chairman of the organizations Board of Directors until January 2014, when former ambassador to China and governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, Jr. was appointed. The Atlantic Council has influential supporters, with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen calling the Council a pre-eminent think tank with a longstanding reputation, Senator Richard Lugar noting that the Council is held in high esteem within the Atlantic community. In September 2014, The Atlantic Council hired Call of Duty, the Atlantic Council has, since its inception, been a nonpartisan institution, with members from the moderate internationalist wings of both parties. Despite its connections, the Council is by charter independent of the US government and NATO and it has however received criticism over its transparency and the effect of its business interests on research and policy programs. In March 2016, the organization met to discuss strategies for dealing with the populist movements in Europe, the Atlantic Council creates a meeting place for heads of state, military leaders, and international leaders from both sides of the Atlantic. Prominent members of the US Congress have also appeared, including Senator Richard Lugar, the Council has hosted many military leaders from both sides of the Atlantic as well. Launched at the 2008 Bucharest summit, the Young Atlanticist Network brings together a community of emerging leaders who share a vision of closer Euro-Atlantic cooperation based on common values. As a meeting place, the Network serves as a stage for global leaders to address the next generation, the Young Atlanticist Network also manages the very competitive Future Leaders program. The Council selects a cadre of exceptional emerging leaders to participate in this event through an open. The Program on Transatlantic Relations promotes dialogue on the issues that will affect the evolution of the transatlantic relationship

2.
Secretary General of NATO
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The Secretary General of NATO is an international diplomat who serves as the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, the Secretary General does not have any command role. Together with the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and the Supreme Allied Commander the Secretary General is one of the foremost officials of NATO, the current Secretary General is Jens Stoltenberg, the former Prime Minister of Norway, who took office on 1 October 2014. Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty requires NATO members to establish a Council, accordingly, the North Atlantic Council was formed. Initially the Council consisted of NATO members foreign ministers and met annually, in May 1950, the desire for closer coordination on a day-to-day basis led to the appointment of Council deputies, permanently based in London and overseeing the workings of the organization. Deputies were given full decision-making authority within the North Atlantic Council, the Chairman of the deputies was given responsibility for directing the organization and its work, including all of its civilian agencies. The Council deputies met for the first time on July 25,1950, and selected Charles Spofford, several important organisational changes quickly followed the establishment of Council deputies, most notably the establishment of a unified military command under a single Supreme Allied Commander. This unification and the challenges facing NATO led to rapid growth in the institutions of the organisation and in 1951, NATO was reorganized to streamline. As the authority of the increased, and the size of the organization grew, NATO established the Temporary Council Committee. This group established an official secretariat in Paris to command NATOs bureaucracy, after the Lisbon Conference, the NATO states began looking for a person who could fill the role of Secretary General. The position was first offered to Oliver Franks, the British Ambassador to the United States, unlike later Secretaries General who served as Chairman of the North Atlantic Council, Ismay was made the Vice Chairman of the Council, with Spofford continuing to serve as chairman. Ismay was selected because of his rank in the war. As both a soldier and a diplomat, he was considered qualified for the position. Several months later, after Spofford retired from the NATO, the structure of the North Atlantic Council was changed slightly, Ismay served as Secretary General until retiring in May,1957. After Ismay, Paul-Henri Spaak, a diplomat and former Prime Minister of Belgium was selected as the second Secretary General. Unlike Ismay, Spaak had no experience, so his appointment represented a deemphasis of the strictly military side of the Atlantic Alliance. When confirming Spaaks appointment in December 1956 during a session of the NATO foreign ministers, the NATO Secretary General chairs several of the senior decision-making bodies of NATO. In addition to the North Atlantic Council, he chairs the Defence Planning Committee, in a second role, the Secretary General leads the staff of NATO

Secretary General of NATO
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Incumbent Jens Stoltenberg since 1 October 2014
Secretary General of NATO
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Hastings Ismay, the first Secretary General of NATO

3.
Member states of NATO
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NATO is an international alliance that consists of 28 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949, of the 28 member countries, two are located in North America and 25 are European countries while Turkey is in Eurasia. All members have militaries, except for Iceland which does not have a typical army, three of NATOs members are nuclear weapons states, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NATO has 12 original founding member states, and from February 181952 to May 6,1955, it added 3 more member nations. After the end of the Cold War, NATO added 12 more member nations from March 12,1999 to April 1,2009, NATO has added new members six times since its founding in 1949, and since 2009 NATO has had 28 members. Twelve countries were part of the founding of NATO, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1952, Greece and Turkey became members of the Alliance, joined later by West Germany, in 1990, with the reunification of Germany, NATO grew to include the former country of East Germany. In 1997, three former Warsaw Pact countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, were invited to join NATO. After this fourth enlargement in 1999, the Vilnius group of The Baltics and seven East European countries formed in May 2000 to cooperate, seven of these countries joined in the fifth enlargement in 2004. Albania and Croatia joined in the enlargement in 2009. Due to the 2016–17 Turkish purges and Turkeys turn to some have speculated that Turkey could be expelled from NATO

Member states of NATO
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Current NATO members highlighted in blue

4.
Albania
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Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a population of 3.03 million as of 2016, Tirana is the nations capital and largest city, followed by Durrës and Vlorë. The country has a coastline on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea to the west. Albania is less than 72 km from Italy, across the Strait of Otranto which connects the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea. In antiquity, the area of Albania was home to several Illyrian, Thracian. After the Illyrian Wars, it part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Moesia Superior. In 1190, the first Albanian state, the Principality of Arbanon was established by archon Progon in the region of Krujë, the territory of Albania was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, of which it remained part of for the next five centuries. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, following the Balkan Wars, the Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. The following year, a socialist Peoples Republic was established under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, Albania experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the Republic of Albania was established, Albania is a democratic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy. The service sector dominates the economy, followed by the industrial. After the fall of communism in Albania, Free-market reforms have opened the country to foreign investment, especially in the development of energy, Albania has a high HDI and provides universal health care system and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. Albania is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and it is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. Albania is one of the members of the Energy Community, Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. It is home to the largest lake in Southern Europe and one of the oldest lakes in Europe, Albania is the Medieval Latin name of the country. The name may have a continuation in the name of a settlement called Albanon and Arbanon. During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëri or Arbëni, Albanians today call their country Shqipëri. As early as the 17th century the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria, the two terms are popularly interpreted as Land of the Eagles and Children of the Eagles

5.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie

6.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska

7.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period

8.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs

9.
Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth

10.
Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water

11.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

12.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

13.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens

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Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri

15.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world

16.
Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language

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Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began

18.
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg /ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡ/, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east and its culture, people and languages are highly intertwined with its neighbours, making it essentially a mixture of French and Germanic cultures. It comprises two regions, the Oesling in the north as part of the Ardennes massif. With an area of 2,586 square kilometres, it is one of the smallest sovereign states in Europe, Luxembourg had a population of 524,853 in October 2012, ranking it the 8th least-populous country in Europe. As a representative democracy with a monarch, it is headed by a Grand Duke, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a country, with an advanced economy and the worlds highest GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a member of the European Union, OECD, United Nations, NATO, and Benelux, reflecting its political consensus in favour of economic, political. The city of Luxembourg, which is the capital and largest city, is the seat of several institutions. Luxembourg served on the United Nations Security Council for the years 2013 and 2014, around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value. In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors, in the following centuries, Luxembourgs fortress was steadily enlarged and strengthened by its successive occupants, the Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the French. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Luxembourg was disputed between Prussia and the Netherlands and this arrangement was revised by the 1839 First Treaty of London, from which date Luxembourgs full independence is reckoned. In 1842 Luxembourg joined the German Customs Union, the King of the Netherlands remained Head of State as Grand Duke of Luxembourg, maintaining a personal union between the two countries until 1890. At the death of William III, the throne of the Netherlands passed to his daughter Wilhelmina and this allowed Germany the military advantage of controlling and expanding the railways there. In August 1914, Imperial Germany violated Luxembourgs neutrality in the war by invading it in the war against France and this allowed Germany to use the railway lines, while at the same time denying them to France. Nevertheless, despite the German occupation, Luxembourg was allowed to maintain much of its independence, in 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Luxembourgs neutrality was again violated when the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany entered the country, entirely without justification. A government in exile based in London supported the Allies, sending a group of volunteers who participated in the Normandy invasion. Luxembourg was liberated in September 1944, and became a member of the United Nations in 1945. Luxembourgs neutral status under the constitution formally ended in 1948, in 2005, a referendum on the EU treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was held

Luxembourg
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Historic map (undated) of Luxembourg city's fortifications
Luxembourg
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Flag
Luxembourg
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Photograph of the fortress of Luxembourg prior to demolition in 1867
Luxembourg
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Luxembourg City: The Passerelle, also known as the viaduct or old bridge, over the Pétrusse river valley, opened 1861

19.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously

20.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him

21.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church

22.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north

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Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage

24.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC

25.
Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC

26.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

27.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels

28.
North Atlantic Treaty
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The North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D. C. on 4 April 1949, is the treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The treaty was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by a committee which was chaired by US diplomat Theodore Achilles and it was never shown to anyone except Jack. I wish I had kept it, but when I left the Department in 1950, I dutifully left it in the safe and I have never been able to trace it in the archives. It drew heavily on the Rio Treaty, and a bit of the Brussels Treaty, which had not yet been signed, but of which we were being kept heavily supplied with drafts. The eventual North Atlantic Treaty had the form, and a good bit of the language of my first draft. The treaty was created with an attack by the Soviet Union against Western Europe in mind. Rather, it was invoked for the first time in 2001 in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center, the following twelve nations signed the treaty and thus became the founding members of NATO. The following leaders signed the agreement as plenipotentiaries of their countries in Washington D. C, belgium – Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak and Ambassador Baron Robert Silvercruys Canada – Secretary of State for External Affairs Lester B. Pearson and Ambassador H. H. An Article 4 meeting was also convoked by Latvia, Lithuania, long-range artillery could be used across the border. The US said that Turkey has a right to action against the PKK. A news report also disclosed prior to the 28 July meeting that Turkey had violated Iraqi airspace in its pursuit of the PKK, the key section of the treaty is Article 5. Its commitment clause defines the casus foederis and it commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state, in Europe or North America, to be an armed attack against them all. It has been invoked only once in NATO history, by the United States after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001, when NATO determined that the attacks were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty. Active Endeavour began on 4 October 2001, in April 2012, Turkish PM Erdogan considered invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty to protect Turkish national security in a dispute over the Syrian Civil War. The alliance responded quickly and a spokesperson said the alliance was monitoring the situation closely and will continue to do so and takes it very seriously protecting its members. ”On April 17. On April 29, the Syrian foreign ministry wrote that it had received Erdogans message, on 5 August, Erdoğan stated that The tomb of Suleyman Shah and the land surrounding it is our territory. We cannot ignore any unfavorable act against that monument, as it would be an attack on our territory, everyone knows his duty, and will continue to do what is necessary. We have no intention to interfere militarily, the recording has been reported as being probably recorded at Davutoğlus office at the Foreign Ministry on 13 March

North Atlantic Treaty
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North Atlantic Treaty authentication page

29.
List of diplomatic missions to NATO
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This page lists diplomatic missions resident in the Kingdom of Belgium. At present, the city of Brussels hosts 183 embassies. Thus, a country can send up to three ambassadors to Brussels, one to the King of the Belgians, Philippe of Belgium, one to NATO, some missions serve all three functions, while other countries open separate offices for each

30.
NATO
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party, three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear-weapon states. NATOs headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe, an additional 22 countries participate in NATOs Partnership for Peace program, with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the global total, Members defence spending is supposed to amount to 2% of GDP. The course of the Cold War led to a rivalry with nations of the Warsaw Pact, politically, the organization sought better relations with former Warsaw Pact countries, several of which joined the alliance in 1999 and 2004. N. The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, the treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Unions Defence Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism. He got a hearing, especially considering American anxiety over Italy. In 1948 European leaders met with U. S. defense, military and diplomatic officials at the Pentagon, marshalls orders, exploring a framework for a new and unprecedented association. Talks for a new military alliance resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty and it included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, stated in 1949 that the goal was to keep the Russians out, the Americans in. Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous, and some Icelanders participated in a pro-neutrality, the creation of NATO can be seen as the primary institutional consequence of a school of thought called Atlanticism which stressed the importance of trans-Atlantic cooperation. The members agreed that an attack against any one of them in Europe or North America would be considered an attack against them all. The treaty does not require members to respond with military action against an aggressor, although obliged to respond, they maintain the freedom to choose the method by which they do so. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels, which states that the response will be military in nature. It is nonetheless assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily, the treaty was later clarified to include both the members territory and their vessels, forces or aircraft above the Tropic of Cancer, including some Overseas departments of France. The creation of NATO brought about some standardization of allied military terminology, procedures, and technology, the roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements codified many of the common practices that NATO has achieved

NATO
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The North Atlantic Treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949 and was ratified by the United States that August.
NATO
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Flag
NATO
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The German Bundeswehr provided the largest element of the allied land forces guarding the frontier in Central Europe.
NATO
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Reforms made under Mikhail Gorbachev led to the end of the Warsaw Pact.

31.
Enlargement of NATO
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Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is an alliance of twenty-six European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows only for the invitation of other European States, countries wishing to join have to meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialogue and military integration. The accession process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATOs governing body, after its formation in 1949 with twelve founding members, NATO grew by including Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955, and then later Spain in 1982. After the Cold War ended, and Germany reunited in 1990, in 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined the organization, amid much debate within the organization and Russian opposition. Another expansion came with the accession of seven Central and Eastern European countries, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and these nations were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit, and joined NATO shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. The most recent new members, Albania and Croatia, joined on 1 April 2009, in 2011, NATO officially recognized four aspiring members, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Macedonia has been prevented from joining the alliance by Greece, one effect of the Macedonian naming dispute, the incorporation of countries formerly in the Eastern Bloc has been a cause of increased tension between NATO countries and Russia. NATO has added new members six times since its founding in 1949 to include twenty-eight members. Twelve countries were part of the founding of NATO, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The early years of the Cold War saw a stark divide between Capitalist ideologies, backed by NATO, and Communist satellite states of the Soviet Union and this divide encouraged the anti-Communist governments of Greece and Turkey to join NATO in 1952. Greece would suspend its membership in 1974, over the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Bonn–Paris conventions ended the allies occupation of West Germany, and were ratified in part on the basis that West Germany join NATO, which it did in 1955. Though initially isolationist, Spain under Francisco Franco was heavily anti-Communist, after its transition to democracy, Spain came under pressure to normalize its European relations, including joining NATO, which it did in 1982. A referendum in 1986 confirmed popular support for this, the first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with German reunification on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance. This had been agreed in the Two Plus Four Treaty earlier in the year, other authors, such as Mark Kramer, have also highlighted that in 1990 neither side imagined that countries still technically in the Warsaw Pact or the Soviet Union could one day join NATO. In subsequent years, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbors were set up, including the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Hungarys interest in joining was confirmed by a November 1997 referendum that returned 85.3 percent in favor of membership, russias actions in the First Chechen War were also a motivating factor for several countries that had memories of similar Soviet offensives. Russia was particularly upset with the addition of the three Baltic states, the first countries that were part of the Soviet Union to join NATO

32.
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
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Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe is the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations Allied Command Operations. Since 1967 it has been located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons, from 1951 to 2003, SHAPE was the headquarters of Allied Command Europe, ACE. Since 2003 it has been the headquarters of Allied Command Operations, SHAPE retained its traditional name with reference to Europe for legal reasons although the geographical scope of its activities was extended in 2003. At that time, NATOs command in Lisbon, historically part of the Atlantic command, was reassigned to ACO, an integrated military structure for NATO was first established after the Korean War raised questions over the strength of Europes defences against a Soviet attack. The first choice for commander in Europe was American General of the Army Dwight D, on December 19,1950, the North Atlantic Council announced the appointment of General Eisenhower as the first SACEUR. British Field Marshal Sir Bernard L, montgomery moved over from the predecessor Western Union Defence Organization to become the first Deputy SACEUR, who would serve until 1958. In establishing the command, the first NATO planners drew extensively on WUDO plans, General Eisenhower arrived in Paris on January 1,1951, and quickly set to work with a small group of planners to devise a structure for the new European command. The Planning Group worked in the Hotel Astoria in central Paris while construction of a permanent facility began at Rocquencourt, just west of the city, devising command arrangements in the Central Region, which contained the bulk of NATO’s forces, proved to be much more complicated. Drawing upon his World War II experience, General Eisenhower decided to retain overall control himself, instead there would be three separate C-in-Cs. In December 1950 it was announced that the forces initially to come under General Eisenhowers command were to be the U. S, on April 2,1951, General Eisenhower signed the activation order for Allied Command Europe and its headquarters at SHAPE. Headquarters, Allied Forces Central Europe was activated in Fontainebleau, France in 1953, on the same day, ACEs subordinate headquarters in Northern and Central Europe were activated, with the Southern Region following in June. By 1954 ACEs forces consisted of Allied Forces Northern Europe, at Oslo, Allied Forces Central Europe, Allied Forces Southern Europe, hodes, United States Army Allied Forces Southern Europe – Admiral R. P. M. Two 1952 central region exercises involved air-ground combined forces, equinox was a major air-ground exercise involving French-American tactical air units and a French airborne infantry unit under the command of Général dArmée Alphonse Juin, French Army. They maneuvered east of the Rhine River in the British Zone under the command of Lt. General Sir Richard Nelson Gale. Finally, Rosebud involved ground maneuvers by the U. S, seventh Army in the American Zone of Occupation of Allied-occupied Germany. The initial plans saw the defence of Western Europe from a Soviet invasion resting heavily on nuclear weapons, the conventional forces would attempt to hold this line while the allied strategic air forces defeated the Soviets and their allies by destroying their economy and infrastructure. What this strategy meant for the battle in the central region was described for publicity purposes in January 1954 by then-Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Alfred Gruenther as. An air-ground shield which, although still not strong enough, would force an enemy to concentrate prior to attack, in doing so, the concentrating force would be extremely vulnerable to losses from atomic weapon attacks

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
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The greater coat of arms of SHAPE, featuring the flags of the member states as supporters
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
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Organisation of ACE in 1952
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
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Main building at SHAPE
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
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Not to be confused with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

33.
Allied Maritime Command
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Allied Maritime Command is the central command of all NATO maritime forces and the Commander MARCOM is the prime maritime advisor to the Alliance. When directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, it provides the core of the responsible for the conduct of maritime operations. The command is based at the Northwood Headquarters in northwest London, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, gained a NATO responsibility as Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic Area, as part of SACLANT, when the NATO military command structure was established in 1953. CINCEASTLANT headquarters was established at the Northwood Headquarters in northwest London, Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic was redesignated as Commander, Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood around 2004. The command, which was renamed Allied Maritime Command Northwood in 2010, at the 2010 NATO Summit in Lisbon it was decided to create a leaner and more effective command structure. It is responsible for planning and conducting all NATO maritime operations, MARCOM leads four standing NATO maritime groups, two frigate groups and two mine countermeasures groups. The Standing NATO Maritime Groups are a multinational, integrated maritime force made up of vessels from allied countries, the ships and any aircraft aboard are available to NATO to support Alliance tasking. These groups provide NATO with a continuous maritime capability, the command is also responsible for additional naval assets as they support NATO missions. Current groups are, Standing NATO Maritime Group 1, Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1, current operations include, Operation Active Endeavour and Operation Ocean Shield Official website

34.
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
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The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee is the head of the NATO Military Committee, which advises the North Atlantic Council on military policy and strategy. The Chairman is one of the foremost officials of NATO, next to the Secretary General, the current Chairman of the NATO Military Committee is Petr Pavel, former Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Czech Republic, who took office on June 26,2015. The Military Committee was directly subordinate to the Defence Committee, iceland, which had no military forces, was represented by a civilian. Each member state in turn held the Chair of the Military Committee for one year, the principal military member of each NATO countrys delegation is the Military Representative, a senior officer from each countrys armed forces, supported by the International Military Staff. Its principal role is to provide direction and advice on military policy, like the Council, from time to time the Military Committee also meets at a higher level, namely at the level of Chiefs of Defence, the most senior military officer in each nations armed forces. Until 2008 the Military Committee excluded France, due to that countrys 1966 decision to itself from NATOs integrated military structure. Until France rejoined NATO, it was not represented on the Defence Planning Committee, such was the case in the lead up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The operational work of the Committee is supported by the International Military Staff, the Chairman of the Military Committee chairs all meetings and acts in an international capacity. In his absence, the Deputy Chairman of the Military Committee takes the chair, the current Chairman is Czech General Petr Pavel. Since the formation of NATO, its Military Chairmen have been, Douglas S. Bland, The Military Committee of the North Atlantic Alliance, A Study of Structure and Strategy, New York, Praeger,1991

Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
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Incumbent General Petr Pavel since 26 June 2015
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee

35.
Albanian Armed Forces
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The Albanian Armed Forces are the military of Albania and were formed after the declaration of independence in 1912. Today, it consists of, the General Staff, the Albanian Land Force, Albanian Air Force, the President of Albania is the Commander-in-Chief of the nations military. In times of peace, the Presidents powers as Commander-in-Chief are executed through the Prime Minister, on 4 December 1912, the Albanian Prime Minister, Ismail Qemali and his government, formed the Albanian National Army. Its first Chief in Command was Lieutenant Colonel Ali Shefqet Shkupi By 1923, at that time, Albania did not have a navy. In 1927, the Albanian Armed Forces numbered approximately 8.000 and these troops were organized into three groups, based in Tirana, Shkodër to the north and Berat to the south. Each group was organized into three battalions of 500, a guards battalion of 350 was organized in Tirana. Four frontier battalions of mountaineers were held on reserve, as well as tanks, additionally, a cadet school, a machine-gun school, and a bombing school were housed in the capital. In 1927 alone, the Albanian military ordered 20,000 rifles,40 mountain guns,120 machine guns, the Royal Albanian Army was the army of King Zogu from 1928 until 1939. Its commander-in-chief was himself, its commander General Xhemal Aranitasi, its Chief of Staff was General Gustav von Myrdacz, the army was mainly financed by Italy. On 7 April 1939, Italian troops invaded the country, after the Second World War, Albania became a Soviet-aligned country. The ranks and the structure of the Albanian Armed Forces were organized based on the Soviet concepts, like all other branches of the state, the military was subjugated to Communist Party control. All high-ranking military officers and most of the lower and middle ranks were members of the Communist Party—and had loyalties to it, the system was re-enforced by the establishment of Party cells within the military and extensive communist political education alongside soldiers’ military training, by the political commissars. In 1991 the rank system was reestablished under President Ramiz Alia, initially the communist purge concentrated on the military personnel graduated by the Western Military Academies, extended later on to the officers graduated in Soviet Union. As the communist regime collapsed in Albania during 1990, there was a fear that the armed forces might intervene to halt the collapse of communism by force. In the event, the armed forces stood by as the regime of which they had been a part disintegrated, during the 1980s, Albania had reduced the number of infantry brigades from eight to four. It had shifted to fully manned units from its reliance on the mobilisation of reserve soldiers to flesh out a larger number of units manned at a lower level. Each brigade had three battalions and one lightly equipped artillery battalion. Armoured forces consisted of one tank brigade, artillery forces were increased from one to three regiments during the 1980s, and six battalions of coastal artillery were maintained at strategic points along the Adriatic Sea littoral

Albanian Armed Forces
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An Albanian T-59 tank during the Albania-Yugoslav border incident in May 1999.
Albanian Armed Forces
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Emblem of Albanian Armed Forces
Albanian Armed Forces
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Albanian soldiers conduct a joint patrol with U.S. soldiers in Iraq on 13 January 2005
Albanian Armed Forces
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The full set of commissioned officers ranks in the Albanian Army

36.
Belgian Armed Forces
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The Belgian Armed Forces is the national military of Belgium. The Belgian Armed Forces was established after Belgium became independent in October 1830, since that time Belgian armed forces have fought in World War I, World War II, the Cold War, Kosovo, Somalia and Afghanistan. The ParaCommando Brigade intervened several times in Central-Africa, for maintaining public order, the Armed Forces comprise four branches, the Land Component, the Air Component, the Marine Component and the Medical Component. It is currently active in Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Gulf of Aden, the need for a regular army was however soon acknowledged. The basis for recruitment was one of conscription under which exemptions could be purchased by obtaining substitutes. In practice this meant that only about a quarter of each years eligible intake actually served, as part of the national policy of even-handed neutrality, the 19th century Belgian Army was deployed as an essentially defensive force in fortifications facing the Dutch, German and French borders. Mobilisation plans simply required reservists to report to their depots, without arrangements being made in advance for deployment in a direction or against a particular enemy. Recruitment difficulties caused the army to remain below its intended strength of 20,000 men, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 required full mobilisation for nearly a year, a process which showed up serious training and structural weaknesses. The presence of Belgian forces in strength along the borders did however ensure that the combat at no time spilled over into Belgian territory. In Belgium conscripts were selected through the drawing of ballots, and this system favored the well-off and had been discarded elsewhere as inefficient and unpatriotic. For those conscripted the terms of service required eight years in the regular army, various categories of volunteer enjoyed such privileges as being able to specify their branch of service, bounties and higher pay. The Papal Army based in Rome included from 1860 a battalion-sized unit known as the Tirailleurs Franco-Belges, recruited amongst volunteers from both countries, this became the Pontifical Zouaves in 1861 and fought as an allied force on the French side in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1864 a Corps Expeditionnaire Belge was raised for service in Mexico, originally intended to serve as the Guard of the Belgian-born Empress Charlotte this 1,500 strong force was largely drawn from volunteers seconded from the Belgian Army. Known popularly as the Belgian Legion, it saw service in Mexico as part of the Imperial forces. From 1885 the Force Publique was established as the garrison and police force in the Belgian Congo. Initially led by a variety of European mercenaries, this force was subsequently officered by Belgian regulars after 1908. From December 1904 a small detachment of Belgian troops was based in China as the Guard of the Belgian Legation in Peking. Reforms undertaken in the years of the 20th century included the abolition in 1909 of the system of drawing lots for the selection of the annual intake of conscripts

37.
Bulgarian Armed Forces
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The Bulgarian Army represents the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria. The Commander-in-Chief is the President of Bulgaria, the Ministry of Defence is in charge of political leadership while overall military command remains in the hands of the Defence Staff, headed by the Chief of the Defence. There are three branches, named literally the Land Forces, the Air Forces and the Naval Forces. Throughout history, the Army has played a role in defending the countrys sovereignty. During the Cold War the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria maintained one of the largest militaries in the Warsaw Pact, since the Fall of Communism, the political leadership decided to pursue a pro-NATO policy, thus reducing military personnel and weaponry. Bulgaria joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 29 March 2004, the patron saint of the Bulgarian Army is St. George. The Armed Forces Day or St. Georges Day is a holiday in Bulgaria. The modern Bulgarian military dates back to 1878, on 22 July 1878 a total of 12 battalions of opalchentsi who participated in the Liberation war, formed the Bulgarian armed forces. According to the Tarnovo Constitution, all men between 21 and 40 years of age were eligible for military service, in 1883 the military was reorganized in four infantry brigades and one cavalry brigade. The Serbo-Bulgarian War was the first armed conflict after Bulgarias liberation and it was a result of the unification with Eastern Rumelia, which happened on 6 September 1885. The unification was not completely recognized, however, and one of the countries that refused to recognize the act was the Kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been expanding its influence in the Balkans and was particularly opposed. Serbia also feared this would diminish its dominance in the region, in addition, Serbian ruler Milan Obrenović IV was annoyed that Serbian opposition leaders like Nikola Pašić, who had escaped persecution after the Timok Rebellion, had found asylum in Bulgaria. Lured by Austria-Hungarys promises of territorial gains from Bulgaria, Milan IV declared war on Bulgaria on 14 November 1885, Military strategy relied largely on surprise, as Bulgaria had moved most of its troops near the border with the Ottoman Empire, in the southeast. As it happened, the Ottomans did not intervene and the Serbian armys advance was stopped after the Battle of Slivnitsa, the main body of the Bulgarian army traveled from the Ottoman border in the southeast to the Serbian border in the northwest to defend the capital, Sofia. After the defensive battles at Slivnitsa and Vidin, Bulgaria began an offensive that took the city of Pirot, at this point the Austro-Hungarian Empire stepped in, threatening to join the war on Serbias side if Bulgarian troops did not retreat. Fighting lasted for only 14 days, from 14-28 November, a peace treaty was signed in Bucharest on 19 February 1886. No territorial changes were made to either country, but Bulgarian unification was recognized by the Great Powers, however, the relationship of trust and friendship between Serbia and Bulgaria, built during their long common fight against Ottoman rule, suffered irreparable damage. Instability in the Balkan region in the early 1900s quickly became a precondition for a new war, Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of its independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to districts of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia for expansion

38.
Republic of Croatia Armed Forces
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The total number of active military personnel in the Croatian Armed Forces stands at 14,506 and 6,000 reserves working in various service branches of the armed forces. In May 2016, Armed Forces had 16,019 members, of the 14,506 active military personnel,3,183 were officers,5,389 non-commissioned officers,5,393 soldiers,520 military specialists,337 civil servants and 1,176 other employees. Total available male manpower aged 16–49 number 1,035,712, male citizens are now no longer subject to compulsory military service since January 1,2008. However, the last generation of 2007 servicemen was also absolved of compulsory service by an act from then Minister of Defence Berislav Rončević. For example,1995 Croatian defense budget stood at 12.4 billion Croatian Kuna or just over 12% of GDP, a long term modernization plan, 2015-2024 has been published outlining overall goals and is available for download at the Ministry of Defence of Croatia website. At the moment the Croatian Air Force will keep 12 MiG-21bis fighter aircraft, the Dr. Franjo Tuđman Military Academy acts as a school of higher learning responsible for training and educating future generations of military personnel. The academy consists of schools including Ban Josip Jelačić, Blago Zadro, Katarina Zrinska, the Officers Academy. The academy has 300 full-time staff and is the military academy in Croatia. Each year also 100-120 foreign nationals attend the academy, the Commander-in-Chief of all Croatian armed forces in peace and war is the President of the Republic. The Commander-in-Chief prescribes the organization of the Croatian Armed Forces at the proposal of the Chief of General Staff, the Armed Forces consist of peacetime and wartime components. The wartime component of the Armed Forces includes all other reservists, the General Staff is part of the Ministry of Defense in charge of commanding, training and use of the Armed Forces. It also has a number of units under its command, including the Special Operations Battalion, Honor Guard Battalion. In peace, the Commander-in-Chief exercises his command through the Minister of Defence, in war and in cases where the Minister of Defence is not fulfilling his orders, the Commander-in-Chief exercises his command directly through the General Staff Commander. The Croatian Parliament exercises democratic control over the Armed Forces by adopting defence strategy, defence budget, the command staff is composed of the members who served in the special units, guards brigades and reconnaissance units of the Croatian Armed Forces. Colonel Perica Turalija is the current commanding officer of the command, also, this means that members of all three branches of the Croatian armed forces can apply for selection. Other special operations units are the Military Intelligence Battalion and Special Military Police Company, the duties of an Honour Guard are performed by the Počasno zaštitna bojna, located at Zagreb in the Tuškanac military base. A $3-Billion modernization plan was proposed by the then Prime Minister Ivica Racan of the SDP led Government in 2003, with planned modernization starting in 2006 and ending in 2015. However it has been delayed in part due to the subsequent economic recession, a New Plan under the current Prime Minister Zoran Milanović should define exactly how and what the Croatian armed forces should look like by 2023

39.
Army of the Czech Republic
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The Army of the Czech Republic comprise the Czech Land Forces, the Czech Air Force and support units. From the late 1940s to 1989, the extensive Czechoslovak Peoples Army formed one of the pillars of the Warsaw Pact military alliance, as defined by the Czech Law No. 219/1999 Coll. the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic are the forces of the Czech Republic. They consist of the Army of the Czech Republic, the Military Office of President of the Republic, the Czechoslovak Armed Forces were originally formed on 30 June 1918 when 6. On the other side of the conflict, a number of Czechoslovak units and formations served with the Polish Army, the French Army, the Royal Air Force, the British Army, four Czech and Slovak-manned RAF squadrons were transferred to Czechoslovak control in late 1945. From 1954 until 1990, the Army was known as the Czechoslovak Peoples Army. Of the approximately 201,000 personnel on duty in the ČSLA in 1987, about 145,000, or about 72 percent. About 100,000 of these were conscripts, there were two military districts, Western and Eastern. In the Eastern Military District, there were two divisions, the 13th and 14th, with a supervisory headquarters at Trenčín in the Slovak part of the country. 58 assault rifle or the Uk vz.59 machine gun were of Czechoslovak design, the Army of the Czech Republic was formed after the Czechoslovak Armed Forces split after the 1 January 1993 dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Czech forces stood at 90,000 in 1993 and they were reduced to around 65,000 in 11 combat brigades and the Air Force in 1997, to 63,601 in 1999, and to 35,000 in 2005. At the same time, the forces were modernized and reoriented towards a defensive posture, in 2004, the army transformed itself into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. The Army maintains an active reserve, the Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. At the 1999 Washington summit, the Czech Republic joined NATO, the unit is stationed in the outskirts of the city of Olomouc, in place of the canceled 156th Rescue Battalion. Active Reserve is a part of the otherwise professional Army of the Czech Republic and this service was created to allow the participation of citizens with a positive attitude to the military. A volunteer needs either to have completed the military service or to attend 8 week training. Then the reservists have to serve up to three weeks a year and can be called up to two weeks during a non-military crisis. They are not intended to serve abroad, the Reserve presents itself on events like BAHNA, a military show

Army of the Czech Republic
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Croatian Army Master Sgt.(right) discusses patrol routes with a Czech Army Sgt. (left) in Germany to prepare for Afghanistan, 2012
Army of the Czech Republic
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The coat of arms and roundel
Army of the Czech Republic
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Czech BVP2 firing in Afghanistan
Army of the Czech Republic
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Czech Army Soldiers to participate in exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany

40.
Danish Defence
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The Danish Defence is the unified armed forces of the Kingdom of Denmark, charged with the defence of Denmark and its constituent, self-governing nations Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Denmark also has a concept of total defence, during World War II, the armed forces were disbanded by the Germans during Operation Safari. After the war, the different branches were reorganized, and collected under Danish Defence, was in order for greater communication between the branches. The purpose and task of the forces of Denmark is defined in Law no.122 of February 27,2001. It defines three purposes and six tasks, since 1988, Danish defence budgets and security policy have been set by multi-year agreements supported by a wide parliamentary majority including government and opposition parties. The latest Defence agreement was signed June 10,2004, from now about 60% support structure and 40% combat operational capability, it is to be 40% support structure and 60% combat operational capability, i. e. more combat soldiers and fewer paper-soldiers. The standard mandatory conscription is modified, generally this means fewer conscripts, less service time for them and only those who choose so, will continue into the reaction force system. This list lists the complete expenditures for the Danish Ministry of Defence, the Danish Defence Force, counting all branches and all departments, itself has an income equal to about 1–5% of its expenditures, depending on the year. They are not deducted in this listing, approximately 95% of the budget goes directly to running the Danish military including the Home guard. Because Denmark has a small and highly specialized military industry, the vast majority of the Danish Defences equipment is imported from NATO, frømandskorpset, Amphibious attack and infiltration unit. Slædepatruljen Sirius, Arctic dog sled unit patrolling the border of Greenland. Current deployment of Danish forces, since 10-03-2016, A Challenger CL-604 MMA for maritime patrol in the Baltic Sea as part of NATO Allied Maritime Command,35 soldiers in Kosovo participating in NATOs Kosovo Force, guarding the French Camp Marechal De Lattre de Tassigny. 84 people in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support Mission, HDMS Absalon patrolling the Aegean Sea for human trafficking. 20 people in Bamako and Gao, as part of MINUSMA,13 people in Juba, as part of UNMISS. 11 people in Israel, as part of UNTSO,2 people in South Korea, as part of UNCMAC. 12 men on the Sirus Patrol of Eastern Greenland, a Challenger CL-604 MMA to fly patrol over Greenland. Rota between HDMS Tulugaq, HDMS Knud Rasmussen, HDMS Triton and HDMS Thetis to enact sovereignty patrol in the seas of Greenland, a Challenger CL-604 MMA to do maritime environmental monitoring missions in the North Sea. 149 people at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq to train the military as part of Operation Inherent Resolve

41.
Bundeswehr
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The Bundeswehr is the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities. The States of Germany are not allowed to maintain armed forces of their own, the Bundeswehr is divided into a military part and a civil part with the armed forces administration. The military part of the defense force consists of the Heer, Marine, Luftwaffe, Streitkräftebasis, Zentraler Sanitätsdienst. In addition the Bundeswehr has approximately 27,600 reserve personnel. 2%, the Bundeswehr are in the process of integrating smaller NATO members Brigades into divisions of the German army. The Bundeswehr is to play a role as anchor army for smaller NATO states. 2 of 3 Royal Netherlands Army Brigades are now under German Command, in 2014 the 11th Airmobile Brigade, was integrated into the German Division of fast forces. Also the Dutch 43rd Mechanized Brigade, will be integrated into the 1st Panzer Division of the German army, with the integration starting at the beginning of 2016, and the unit becoming operational at the end of 2019. The Dutch-German military cooperation are seen as an example for setting up a European defense union, also the Czech Republics 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade, and Romania’s 81st Mechanized Brigade, will be integrated into Germany’s 10 Armoured Division and Rapid Response Forces Division. The name Bundeswehr was first proposed by the former Wehrmacht general and Liberal politician Hasso von Manteuffel, the Iron Cross is its official emblem. It is a symbol that has an association with the military of Germany. The Schwarzes Kreuz is derived from the black cross insignia of the medieval Teutonic knights, when the Bundeswehr was established in 1955, its founding principles were based on developing a completely new military force for the defence of West Germany. In this respect the Bundeswehr did not consider itself to be a successor to either the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic or Hitlers Wehrmacht, neither does it adhere to the traditions of any former German military organization. One of the most visible traditions of the modern Bundeswehr is the Großer Zapfenstreich, the FRG reinstated this formal military ceremony in 1952, three years before the foundation of the Bundeswehr. Today it is performed by a band with 4 fanfare trumpeters and timpani. The Zapfenstreich is only performed during national celebrations or solemn public commemorations and it can honour distinguished persons present such as the German federal president or provide the conclusion to large military exercises. Another important tradition in the modern German armed forces is the Gelöbnis, there are two kinds of oath, for conscripts/recruits it is a pledge but its a solemn vow for full-time personnel. The pledge is made annually on 20 July, the date on which a group of Wehrmacht officers attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, recruits from the Bundeswehrs Wachbataillon make their vow at the Bendlerblock in Berlin. This was the headquarters of the resistance but also where the officers were executed following its failure

42.
Hungarian Defence Force
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Hungarian Defence Forces is the national defence force of Hungary. The President holds the title of commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Ministry of Defence jointly with Chief of staff administers the armed forces, including the Hungarian Ground Force, since 2007, the Hungarian Armed Forces is under a unified command structure. The Ministry of Defence maintains the political and civil control over the army, a subordinate Joint Forces Command is coordinating and commanding the HDF corps. In 2016, the forces had 31.080 personnel on active duty. In 2017, military spending will be $1.21 billion, about 0. 94% of the countrys GDP, in 2012, the government adopted a resolution in which it pledged to increase defence spending to 1. 4% of GDP by 2022. Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime, in a significant move for modernization, Hungary decided in 2001 to buy 14 JAS39 Gripen fighter aircraft for about 800 million EUR. Hungarian National Cyber Security Center is re-organized in 2016 in order to more efficient through cyber security. Hungary sent 300 strong logistics unit to Iraq in order to help the US occupation with armed transport convoys, one soldier was killed in action because of a roadside bomb in Iraq. During the 18th and 19th century, Hungarian Hussars rose to international fame, in 1848–49 HDF achieved incredible successes against better-trained and equipped Austrian forces, despite the obvious advantage in numbers on the Austrian side. In 1872, the Ludovica Military Academy officially began training cadets, by 1873 HDF already had over 2,800 officers and 158,000 men organized into eighty-six battalions and fifty-eight squadrons. During World War I out of the eight million men mobilized by Austro Hungarian Empire, during the 1930s and early 1940s, Hungary was preoccupied with the regaining the vast territories and huge amount of population lost in the Trianon peace treaty at Versailles in 1920. Conscription was introduced on a basis in 1939. The peacetime strength of the Royal Hungarian Army grew to 80,000 men organized into seven corps commands, during World War II the Hungarian Second Army was near to total devastation on banks of the Don River in December 1942 in Battle for Stalingrad. As of 2016 Global Peace Index shows, Hungary is one of the worlds most peaceful countries, since 2007, the Hungarian Defence Force has been under a unified command structure. The Ministry of Defence maintains the political and civil control over the army, the military leadership is exercised by the Defence Staff of the Ministry of Defence. A subordinate Joint Force Command coordinates and commands the HDF corps, the Home Defence Pyrotechnician and Warship Battalion of the Hungarian Defence Forces based in Újpest Port, on the River Danube, Budapest. In the 2000s, the army bought new minesweepers, restored or retired the old ones, on national holidays warships come along the River Danube in Budapest

Hungarian Defence Force
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Operator of Hungarian Army's 34th ’László Bercsényi’ Special Operations Battalion (KMZ) about to storm the unit's own Killing House
Hungarian Defence Force
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Flag and emblem of the Hungarian Defence Force
Hungarian Defence Force
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Infantrymen of Hungarian Army's 25/88th Light Mixed Battalion
Hungarian Defence Force
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The Hungarian Air Force has 14 JAS 39 Gripens on lease, including two two-seaters (C/D versions). The final three aircraft were delivered in December 2007.

43.
Military of Iceland
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Icelands defences consist of the Icelandic Coast Guard, which patrols Icelandic waters and airspace, and other services such as the National Commissioners National Security and Special Forces Units. The Coast Guard consists of three ships and four aircraft and armed with small arms, naval artillery, and Air Defence weaponry, the Coast Guard also maintains the Iceland Air Defence System, formerly part of the disestablished Defence Agency, which conducts ground surveillance of Icelands air space. Units subordinated to the National Commissioner also take part in Icelands defences, additionally there is a Crisis Response Unit, operated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, which is a small peacekeeping force that has been deployed internationally, since 2008. This unit also has an unarmed component, furthermore, there is a treaty with the United States regarding the defense of Iceland, the former maintained a military base known as Naval Air Station Keflavik before it was disestablished in 2006. There are also agreements about military and other security operations with Norway, Denmark, Iceland holds the annual NATO exercises entitled Northern Viking. The most recent exercises were held in 2011, as well as the EOD exercise Northern Challenge, in 1997 Iceland hosted its first Partnership for Peace exercise, Cooperative Safeguard, which is the only multilateral PfP exercise so far in which Russia has participated. Another major PfP exercise was hosted in 2000, Iceland has also contributed ICRU peacekeepers to SFOR, KFOR and ISAF. The government of Iceland contributes financially to NATOs international overhead costs and recently has taken an active role in NATO deliberations. Iceland hosted the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Reykjavík in June 1987 and these armies were divided into units according to the quality of the warriors and by birth. At the end of this period the number of chieftains had diminished and their power had grown and this resulted in a long and bloody civil war known as Age of the Sturlungs. A typical battle involved fewer than 1000 men, amphibious operations were an important part of warfare in Iceland in this period, especially in the Westfjords, but large naval engagements were rare. The largest such engagement, known as Flóabardagi, involved a few ships in Húnaflói. In 1855, the Icelandic Army was re-established by Andreas August von Kohl, in 1856, the king provided 180 rixdollars to buy guns, and a further 200 rixdollars the following year. The sheriff became the Captain of the new army, which known as Herfylkingin. In 1860 von Kohl died, and Pétur Bjarnasen took over command, nine years later Bjarnasen died without appointing a successor, and the army fell into disarray. In 1918, Iceland regained sovereignty as a kingdom under the Danish king. Iceland established a Coast Guard shortly afterwards, but it was impossible to establish a standing army. The government hoped that a permanent neutrality would shield the country from invasion, but at the onset of Second World War, the government was concerned about a possible invasion, and decided to expand the Icelandic National Police and its reserves into a military unit

44.
Italian Armed Forces
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The Italian Armed Forces encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the forces, known as the Carabinieri. These five forces have military status and are all organized along military lines, the President of the Italian Republic heads the armed forces as the President of the High Council of Defence established by article 87 of the Constitution of Italy. According to article 78, the Parliament has the authority to declare a state of war, the ground force of Italy, the Regio Esercito dates back to the unification of Italy in the 1850s and 1860s. During the Cold War the Army prepared itself to defend against a Warsaw Pact invasion from the east, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it has seen extensive peacekeeping service in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq. On 29 July 2004 it became a professional all-volunteer force when conscription was finally ended, the navy of Italy was created in 1861, following the proclamation of the formation of the Kingdom of Italy, as the Regia Marina. The new navys baptism of fire came during the Third Italian War of Independence against the Austrian Empire, during the First World War, it spent its major efforts in the Adriatic Sea, fighting the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In the Second World War, it engaged the Royal Navy in a struggle for the control of the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, the new Marina Militare, being a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, has part in many coalition peacekeeping operations. The Guardia Costiera is a component of the navy, the air force of Italy was founded as an independent service arm on 28 March 1923, by King Vittorio Emanuele III as the Regia Aeronautica. During the 1930s, it was involved in its first military operations in Ethiopia in 1935, eventually, Italy entered World War II alongside Germany. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Italy was divided two sides, and the same fate befell the Regia Aeronautica. The Air Force was split into the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force in the south aligned with the Allies, when Italy was made a republic by referendum, the air force was given its current name Aeronautica Militare. The Arma dei Carabinieri is the gendarmerie and military police of Italy, the corps was instituted in 1814 by King Victor Emmanuel I of Savoy with the aim of providing the Kingdom of Sardinia with a police corps, it is therefore older than Italy itself. The new force was divided into divisions on the scale of one division for each province of Italy, the Italian unification saw the number of divisions increased, and in 1861 the Carabinieri were appointed the First Force of the new national military organization. In recent years Carabinieri units have been dispatched on peacekeeping missions, including Kosovo, Afghanistan, Italy did take part in the 1982 Multinational Force in Lebanon along with US, French and British troops. As part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Italy contributed to the operation in Afghanistan. Italian forces have contributed to ISAF, the NATO force in Afghanistan, Italian forces also command a multinational engineer task force and have deployed a platoon of Carabinieri military police

45.
Latvian National Armed Forces
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The Latvian National Armed Forces are the armed forces of the Republic of Latvia. The National Armed Forces consists of Land Forces, Naval Forces, Air Force, National Guard, Latvia has switched to a professional army, the last draft was in 2005. From January 1,2007, the Latvian army is fully contract-based, the mission of the National Armed Forces is to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation and to defend its population against foreign or domestic armed aggression. Ensure modernization and enhancement of professional training, The Latvian armed forces were first formed after the new state was created after World War I. At the end of the Latvian War of Independence, the Latvian Army consisted of 69,232 men, after the Soviet occupation of Latvia in June 1940 the annihilation of the Latvian army began. The army was renamed the People’s Army and in September–November 1940- the Red Army’s 24th Territorial Rifle Corps, the corps comprised the 181st and 183rd Rifle Divisions. In September the corps contained 24,416 men but in more than 800 officers. The arrests of soldiers continued in the following months, in June 1940, the entire Territorial Corps was sent to Litene camp. Before leaving the camp, Latvians drafted in 1939 were demobilised, on June 10, the corps senior officers were sent to Russia where they were arrested and most of them shot. On June 14 at least 430 officers were arrested and sent to Gulag camps, simultaneously, many soldiers and officers deserted and when the corps crossed the Latvian border only about 3,000 Latvian soldiers remained. There are 4,763 active duty personnel in the NAF, there are 971 soldiers in the Latvian Land Forces,552 in the Latvian Naval Forces,251 in the Latvian Air Force with the balance in the other commands. There are 10,642 voluntary national guardsmen with 1,284 officers and 1,945 non-commissioned officers in the Latvian National Guard, there are 1,288 civil employees serving in the NAF. Along with providing for defence, the NAF will also react immediately to threats to other allies. Latvia cooperates with Estonia and Lithuania in the joint infantry battalion BALTBAT, currently, NATO is involved in the patrolling and protection of the Latvian air space as the Latvian military does not have the means to do so. For this goal a rotating force of four NATO fighters, which comes from different nations, after joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Latvia has undertaken obligations to strengthen common defence within the scope of its capabilities. For this purpose, every NATO member state delegates its military formations — fast response, after joining NATO, the foundation of the Latvian defence system has shifted from total territorial defence to collective defence. Latvia has acquired small but highly professional troop units that have fully integrated into NATO structures. NAF soldiers have participated in operations since 1996

46.
Lithuanian Armed Forces
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The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of 20565 active personnel. Conscription was ended in September 2008 but was reintroduced in 2015 because of concerns about the environment in light of Russias military intervention in Ukraine. Lithuanias defence system is based on the concept of total and unconditional defence mandated by Lithuanias National Security Strategy, the goal of Lithuanias defence policy is to prepare their society for general defence and to integrate Lithuania into Western security and defence structures. The defence ministry is responsible for combat forces, search and rescue, a special security department handles VIP protection and communications security. Directly subordinated to the Chief of Defence are the Special Operations Forces, the Reserve Forces are under command of the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces. The core of the Lithuanian Land Force structure is the Iron Wolf Mechanised Infantry Brigade consisting of three mechanized infantry battalions and artillery battalion, the Lithuanian Land forces are undertaking a major modernization. New weapons and heavier armour are going to be acquired, in 2007 the Land forces bought the German Heckler & Koch G36 rifle to replace the older Swedish Ak-4 as main weapon. There are plans to buy new Infantry fighting vehicles, the volunteers have already successfully participated in international operations in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. The NDVF consists of six territorial units, the Lithuanian Air Force is an integral part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The LAF is formed from professional military servicemen and non-military personnel, units are located at various bases across Lithuania, Kaunas, Karmėlava, Nemirseta, Šiauliai, Radviliškis. The initial formation of the LAF was the 2nd transport squadron with the transfer of 20 An-2 aircraft from civilian to military use and these were joined by four L-39C Albatros aircraft purchased from Kazakhstan as part of the intended 16 to be used by the 1st fighter squadron. Mil Mi-8 helicopters were modernised by LAF, in 20082 medium-range radars were acquired for the Air Forces Airspace Surveillance and Control Command. Air space is patrolled by jet fighters from other NATO members, the European Unions External border is patrolled by Aviation Unit of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service which received new helicopters EC-120, EC-135 and EC-145. The Navy has over 600 personnel, the flotilla is the core component of the Navy, and consists of the Mine Countermeasures Squadron, the Patrol Ships Squadron, and the Harbour Boats Group. The current Commander in Chief of the Lithuanian Navy is Rear Admiral Kęstutis Macijauskas, the Naval base and Headquarters are located in the city of Klaipėda. The Navy uses patrol ships for coastal surveillance, the four newly acquired Flyvefisken class patrol vessels replaced the older Storm class patrol boats and Grisha class corvettes. SOF is formed from the Special Operations Unit, SOF are responsible for the following tasks, special reconnaissance, direct actions, and military support. It is also in charge of tasks, e. g. protection of VIP in peacetime

47.
Armed forces of the Netherlands
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The Armed forces of the Netherlands consist of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The service branches consist of, Koninklijke Landmacht, Royal Netherlands Army, Koninklijke Marine, Royal Netherlands Navy and Korps Mariniers, Marine Corps. Koninklijke Luchtmacht, Royal Netherlands Air Force, in addition, within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, there are small local conscript forces on the islands of Aruba and Curaçao. These operate under the auspices of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Marines, the military ranks of the Dutch armed forces have similarities with British and U. S. military ranks. The highest-ranking officer in the Dutch military is the Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff, the Dutch armed forces exist by declaration in the constitution of the Netherlands. Interestingly, this means that the role and responsibility of the Dutch military in international stability, the same article of the constitution determines that supreme command of the Dutch military resides with the Government of the Netherlands. This has been the case since the constitution was changed in 1983, before then, in addition, a second major change in military affairs was made in 2003. Before then, all citizens of the Netherlands were tasked with the defense of the kingdom, in keeping with the move to a professional military, this article was dropped. The Netherlands military is currently a professional military. Conscription in the Netherlands was suspended in 1996 with the exception of Aruba, all military branches and specialties, except for the submarine service and the Marine Corps, are open to female recruits. The Dutch military is part of the NATO militaries and therefore conforms to the structure of a NATO military and it also uses conforming rank structures. All Dutch military personnel, officers and enlisted personnel, are required to take an oath of allegiance and this oath is recorded in the law on General Military Personnel Regulations in Article 126a. Unlike many military organizations, Dutch military members are allowed to form, there are four of these unions, Algemene Federatie van Militair Personeel, which was recognized by the Dutch government in 1966. The AFMP is a member of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions, the ACOM is a member of the Dutch Christian National Trade Union. Gezamenlijke Officieren Verenigingen en Middelbaar en Hoger Burgerpersoneel bij Defensie, which was recognized by the Dutch government in 2004, the GOV/MHB is a member of the Dutch confederation of groups of middle and senior staffmembers. All unions represent both current and retired military personnel and/or civilian personnel, the Netherlands deployed further troops and helicopters to Afghanistan in 2006 as part of a new security operation in the south of the country. Dutch ground and air forces totalled almost 2,000 personnel during 2006, taking part in combat operations alongside British, the Netherlands announced in December 2007 that it would begin withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, which were mainly in Uruzgan Province, in July 2010. I do not have assurances that other countries will be ready to replace Netherlands troops, to the NATO secretary general, who has confirmed it

48.
Norwegian Armed Forces
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The Norwegian Armed Forces is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of four branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the armed forces number 23,000 personnel, including civilian employees, and have a full-mobilisation combat strength of 83,000. The armed forces are subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, led by Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, the formal commander-in-chief is King Harald V, however, the de facto commander-in-chief is Chief of Defence Haakon Bruun-Hanssen. His staff is located at Akershus Fortress in Oslo, while the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the main naval base is Haakonsvern in Bergen, the main army camps are in Bardu, Målselv and Rena, and the main air station is Ørland. An organised military was first assembled in Norway in the 9th century and was focused around naval warfare. The army was created in 1628 as part of Denmark–Norway, followed by two centuries of regular wars, a Norwegian military was established in 1814, but the military did not see combat until the German occupation of Norway in 1940. Norway abandoned its position as a country in 1949 to become a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Cold War saw a large build-up of air stations and military bases, since the 2000s, the military has transformed from a focus on defence from an invasion to a mobile force for international missions. Among European NATO members, the expenditure of US$7.2 billion is the highest per capita. The Chief of Defence heads the armed forces, and is the military adviser to the Minister of Defence. It is headed by a general or admiral. DEFSTNOR assigns priorities, manages resources, provides force generation and support activities, each of the four branches of defence is headed by a two-star general/admiral who are subordinate to DEFSTNOR. National Joint Headquarters located at Reitan, close to Bodø has operational control of Norwegian armed forces worldwide 24/7 and it is headed by the Supreme Commander Norwegian Forces - a three-star general or admiral. Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation at Kolsås outside Oslo is responsible for engineering, procurement, investment, supply, information and it is also responsible for maintenance, repair and storage of material. Norway employs a form of mandatory military service for men and women. While 63,841 men and women were called in for the examination of persons liable for service in 2012,9265 were conscripted. In 2015 conscription was extended to women making Norway the first NATO member, there is a right of conscientious objection. The press statements read, that serves as a means to “fight climate change”

49.
Polish Armed Forces
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Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland are the national armed forces of the Republic of Poland. The name has been used since the early 19th century, from 2002 until 2014, Polish military forces were part of the Coalition Forces that participated in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan led by NATO. Polands contribution to ISAF was the countrys largest, since its entrance into NATO, Polish forces also took part in the Iraq War. From 2003 to 2008, Polish military forces commanded the Multinational Division located in the South-Central Zone of Iraq, the division was made up of troops from 23 nations and totaled as many as 8,500 soldiers. It is regarded as one of the most professional military in Europe, the List of Polish wars chronicles Polish military involvements since the year 972. The present armed forces trace their roots to the early 20th century, large numbers of Poles also served in the armies of the partitioning powers, Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary and Germany. However, these powers took care to spread Polish soldiers all over their armies, during World War I, the Polish Legions were set up in Galicia, the southern part of Poland under Austrian occupation. They were both disbanded after the Central Powers failed to provide guarantees of Polish independence after the war. General Józef Haller, the commander of the Second Brigade of the Polish Legion, switched sides in late 1917, and via Murmansk took part of his troops to France and it was joined by several thousand Polish volunteers from the United States. It fought on the French front in 1917 and 1918, the Polish Army was recreated in 1918 from elements of the three separate Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Prussian armies, and armed with equipment left following World War I. The force expanded during the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1922 to nearly 800,000 men, the Polish Armed Forces in the West comprised army, navy, and air force units, and were loyal to the Polish government-in-exile. Army formations and units included the Polish Army in France, the Polish I Corps in the West, the Polish II Corps, and the rump Command in the Middle East that was briefly designated the III Corps. The Polish Air Force fought in the Battle of France as one squadron, several small units detached to French squadrons. These vessels included the cruisers ORP Dragon and Conrad, seven destroyers, what later became the communist LWP was formed during the Second World War as the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, also unofficially known as the Berling Army. The majority of officers were Polish, the first Polish force formed in the USSR, the Anders Army, had by that time moved to Iran. Polish forces soon grew beyond the 1st Division into two major commands—the First Polish Army and the Polish Second Army, the Polish First Army participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive and the Battle of Kolberg before participating in its final offensive with the Battle of Berlin. The Polish Second Army served under command of the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front in 1945, in the east these two armies were supported at times by Polish air units, part of the Air Force of the Polish Army. The communist-aligned Polish military formation was the Peoples Army of Poland, formed in the Soviet Union and it became the core of the armed forces of post-war Poland

50.
Portuguese Armed Forces
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The Portuguese Armed Forces are the military of Portugal. They include the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the unified bodies. The President of the Republic is the head of the Portuguese military, the management of the Armed Forces and the execution of the national defense policy is however done by the government via its Minister of National Defense. Portugal was ranked the 5th most peaceful country in the World in the Global Peace Index 2016, the Portuguese Armed Forces have been thus focused in non military public service activities and in external military operations. Military units and other bodies are stationed throughout all the Portuguese territory, including Continental Portugal, Madeira, the national defense also assures the fulfillment of the international military agreements of the State, accordingly with the national interest. The Portuguese Armed Forces are responsible for the defense, which is the military component of the national defense. The Portuguese Armed Forces are an essential pillar of the defense and are the structure of the State that has as its main mission the military defense of the Republic. They obey to the competent bodies of sovereignty, accordingly with the Constitution, the system of forces defines the set of capacities that should exist for the fulfillment of the missions of the Armed Forces. It encompasses the set of systems of forces of all branches of the Armed Forces, the system of forces includes two components, Operational component - includes the set of assets and forces to be employed operationally. It is the part of the system of forces, including mainly deployable elements as frigates, infantry battalions. The operational component includes also some non-deployable operational command bodies, fix component - is the set of commands, units, establishments, bodies and services that are essential to the organization and general support of the Armed Forces and their branches. It is the part of the system of forces, including only non-deployable elements as naval bases, regiments. The LDN is regularly updated, with the present version being the Law 21-A/2006, the Strategic Concept of National Defense is the component of the national defense policy which defines the States priorities in terms of defense, accordingly with the national interest. The present version of the CEDN was approved by the Council of Ministers through its Resolution 19/2013, the Organic Basic Law of the Organization of the Armed Forces defines the organization of the Armed Forces. The present version of the LOBOFA is the Organic Law 1-A/2009 and it is elaborated by the Council of Chiefs of Staff, approved by the Minister of National Defense and confirmed by the Superior Council of National Defense. The present CEM in force is the CEM2014, the present version of the LPM is the Organic Law 7/2015. The national deployed forces are units or teams deployed by the Portuguese Armed Forces in foreign missions, mostly in the scope of NATO, since the early beginning, the Kingdom had naval and ground forces. The Portuguese Navy exists as a permanent force since 1317, however non-permanent naval forces existed already before, the Portuguese ground forces were established as a standing army in 1570, however they had existed since the 12th century, as the non-permanent hoste

51.
Romanian Armed Forces
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The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces. The current Commander-in-chief is General Nicolae Ionel Ciuca who is managed by the Minister of National Defence while the president is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces during wartime. 84,000 men and women comprise the Armed Forces,15,000 of them being military personnel. Out of the 90,000 military and civilian personnel,60,000 are the troops while 30,000 comprise the active territorial reserves. As of 2010, the Land Forces have a strength of 43,000, the Air Force 9,700, the Naval Forces 7,150. As per the 2011 White Paper, these forces are to be gradually decreased over the 2011–2014 period to reach a total of about 65,000 active troops and active reserves. Total defence spending currently accounts for 1. 33% of total national GDP, the Land Forces have overhauled their equipment in recent years, and are today a modern army with multiple NATO capabilities. They are participating in a mission in Afghanistan, together with the other NATO countries. The Land Forces are at present planning on replacing the TAB APC vehicles with new armored personnel carriers produced in conjunction with the Germany company Rheinmetall. The Air Force currently operates modernized Soviet MiG-21 LanceR fighters, which are due to be replaced by modernized ex-Portuguese F-16 fighters starting with 2016. In the first stage a first squadron of 12 fighter aircraft will be acquired, the Air Force has also received 7 new C-27J Spartan tactical airlift aircraft, in order to replace the bulk of the old transport force. Two modernized ex-Royal Navy Type 22 frigates were acquired by the Naval Forces in 2004, three domestically-produced IAR330 Puma NAVAL helicopters were also ordered by the Naval Forces, and were commissioned in late 2008. As a consequence, extensive preparations were made to abolish conscription by 2007, the new armed forces include 90,000 men and women, of whom about 75,000 are military personnel. 60,000 of the 90,000 are active forces,30,000 comprise the territorial forces, the Romanian Military will essentially undergo a three-stage restructuring. As of 2007, the first short-term stage has been completed,2015 marks the end of the second stage when the armed forces will reach a superior compatibility with NATO forces. In 2025, the stage is to be completed. The stages aim at modernising the structure of the forces, reducing the personnel as well as acquiring newer. Romanian troops participated in the occupation of Iraq, reaching a peak of 730 soldiers before being drawn down to 350 soldiers

52.
Slovak Armed Forces
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The Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic number 15,996 uniformed personnel and 3,761 civilians. Slovakia joined NATO on 29 March 2004, from 2006 the army transformed into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. Ground forces - are made up of two mechanized infantry brigades and a Combat Support Brigade. Air and air defence forces - comprising one wing of fighters, one wing of utility helicopters, air defence systems SA-6 Gainful -5 batteries SA-10 Grumble -1 battery SA-18 Grouse -72 pcs The 5th Special Forces Regiment is Slovakias counter-terrorism and special operations unit. The unit is attached to the armed forces general staff. Slovakia has 169 military personnel deployed in Cyprus for UNFICYP United Nations led peace support operations, Slovakia committed to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan to around 45 men by the end of 2016. Slovakia has 41 troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina for EUFOR Althea, Slovak troops were withdrawn from Kosovo because the Slovak Armed Forces set its priority to focus mainly on an Afghanistan NATO led mission. Since the independence of Slovakia in 1993, there have been 59 uniformed personnel deaths in the line of service to the United Nations, official homepage of the Ministry of Defence Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic Picture gallery Slovak military photos

53.
Slovenian Armed Forces
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The Slovenian Armed Forces or Slovenian Army are the armed forces of Slovenia. Since 2003, it is organized as a professional standing army. The military history of Slovenia spans less than a hundred years, rudolf Maister, a Slovene major of the former Austro-Hungarian Army, occupied the town of Maribor in November 1918 and claimed it to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. After a short fight with German Austrian provisional units, the current border was established and it was of negligible importance prior to 1990, with antiquated weapons and few members. The Slovenian Armed Forces were formally established in 1993 as a reorganization of the Slovenia Territorial Defence, after 1993, the Slovenian Armed Forces had relied on mandatory military service, with conscripts receiving 6–7 months of training. In 2003, the Slovenian Government abolished conscription and as of July 2004, currently there are approximately 7,300 active troops and approximately 1,500 in reserve, reduced from 55,000 personnel during conscription. A major reorganization of the Slovenian Armed Forces is currently underway with a making them more effective. More than half of all commands have been disbanded which has made commanding the subordinated units easier and faster, soldiers are to be located nearer to their homes in order to minimize travel costs. Reorganization also transformed 72nd Brigade from a unit to a combat unit. Both brigades were added elements, such as Air Defense, Artillery, Intelligence. The operational units now consist of Special Operations Unit, Naval Division, as part of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slovenia was never a member of the Warsaw Pact. Today, the foreign policy priority of NATO membership drives Slovenias defense reorganization, active in the SFOR deployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia is also a charter member of Partnership for Peace and a regular participant in PfP exercises. Slovenia formally joined NATO in March 2004, implementation of interoperability objectives as determined by the Planning and Review Process and the Individual Partnership Program as part of Slovenias PfP participation proceeds. Slovenias elite units already train with and are integrated into international units including NATO members—for example as part of SFOR and its elite mountain troops will be assigned to the Multinational Land Force peacekeeping battalion with Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. Slovenian soldiers are a part of international forces serving in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chad and they have also served in Cyprus and the Golan Heights as a part of UNFICYP and UNDOF respectively. Slovenia hosts Multinational Centre of Excellence for Mountain Warfare, one of NATO Centres of Excellence, located in Bohinjska Bela and it is responsible for training individuals and units for operation in the mountains and other terrains difficult to pass. The Slovenian Armed Forces are organized as single-branch armed forces with the army as their primary component, the airports official name is Cerklje ob Krki Airbase. The others that are partially military are, Ljubljana Airbase shares the airport with Ljubljana International Airport, one helicopter Bell 412 is stationed there for mountain rescue

54.
Turkish Armed Forces
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The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. They consist of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, in wartime, they are subordinate to the Army and Navy. The President of Turkey is the overall head. The current Chief of the General staff is General Hulusi Akar, the Chief of the General Staff is the Commander of the Armed Forces. In wartime, he acts as the Commander in Chief on behalf of the President of Turkey, furthermore, the General Staff coordinates the military relations of the TAF with NATO member states and other friendly nations. The modern history of the army began with its formation after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish military perceived itself as the guardian of Kemalist ideology, the official state ideology, especially of the secular aspects of Kemalism. After becoming a member of NATO on 18 February 1952, Turkey initiated a comprehensive program for its armed forces. The Turkish Army sent troops to fight in Korea, where they played pivotal roles at some points, towards the end of the 1980s, a second restructuring process was initiated. The Turkish Armed Forces participate in European Union battlegroups under the control of the European Council, the TAF also contributes operational staff to the Eurocorps multinational army corps initiative of the EU and NATO. The Turkish Armed Forces collectively rank as the second largest standing military force in NATO, Armed Forces, with an estimated strength in 2015 of 639,551 military, civilian and paramilitary personnel. Turkey is one of five NATO member states which are part of the sharing policy of the alliance, together with Belgium, Germany, Italy. After the end of World War I, many Ottoman military personnel escaped from Rumelia to Anatolia in order to part in the national movement. Turkey won the War of Independence in 1922, Turkey remained neutral until the final stages of World War II. In the initial stage of World War II, Turkey signed a treaty of assistance with Great Britain. But after the fall of France, the Turkish government tried to maintain a distance with both the Allies and the Axis. After the German-Soviet War broke out, the Turkish government sent a delegation of observers under Lieutenant General Ali Fuat Erden to the German Eastern Front. Turkey participated in the Korean War as a state of the United Nations and sent the Turkish Brigade to South Korea. On 18 February 1952, Turkey became a member of NATO, the Korean government donated a war memorial for the Turkish soldiers who fought and died in Korea

55.
British Armed Forces
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They also promote Britains wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts, and provide humanitarian aid. Repeatedly emerging victorious from conflicts has allowed Britain to establish itself as one of the leading military. The Commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the armed forces by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, as required by the Bill of Rights 1689. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence, with the Acts of Union 1707, the armed forces of England and Scotland were merged into the armed forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Britain feared that Russian expansionism in the region would eventually threaten the Empire in India and this ultimately led to British involvement in the Crimean War against the Russian Empire. The beginning of the twentieth century served to reduce tensions between Britain and the Russian Empire, partly due to the emergence of a unified German Empire. Allied victory resulted in the defeat of the Central Powers, the end of the German Empire, the Treaty of Versailles, once again tensions accumulated in European relations, and following Germanys invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Second World War began. The conflict was the most widespread in British history, with British Empire and Commonwealth troops fighting in campaigns from Europe and North Africa, to the Middle East, approximately 390,000 British Empire and Commonwealth troops lost their lives. Allied victory resulted in the defeat of the Axis powers and the establishment of the United Nations, reflecting Britains new role in the world and the escalation of the Cold War, the country became a founding member of the NATO military alliance in 1949. By the mid-1970s, the forces had reconfigured to focus on the responsibilities allocated to them by NATO. While NATO obligations took increased prominence, Britain nonetheless found itself engaged in a number of low-intensity conflicts, however the Dhofar Rebellion and The Troubles emerged as the primary operational concerns of the armed forces. Perhaps the most important conflict during the Cold War, at least in the context of British defence policy, was the Falklands War. Since the end of the Cold War, an international role for the armed forces has been pursued, with re-structuring to deliver a greater focus on expeditionary warfare. In addition to the campaign, the British Army has trained and supplied allies on the ground. Figures released by the Ministry of Defence on 31 March 2016 show that 7,185 British Armed Forces personnel have lost their lives in medal earning theatres since the end of the Second World War. As Sovereign and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II is Head of the Armed Forces, the Queen, however, remains the ultimate authority of the military, with officers and personnel swearing allegiance to the monarch. It has been claimed that this includes the power to prevent unconstitutional use of the armed forces, responsibility for the management of the forces is delegated to a number of committees, the Defence Council, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Defence Management Board and three single-service boards. The Defence Council, composed of representatives of the services

British Armed Forces
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The Vulcan Bomber was the backbone of the United Kingdom’s airborne nuclear deterrent during much of the Cold War.
British Armed Forces
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Her Majesty's Armed Forces
British Armed Forces
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David Cameron greets Nicolas Sarkozy at Lancaster House, London, before signing the Defence and Security Co-operation Treaty.
British Armed Forces
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Welsh Guards Trooping the Colour 2007

56.
Foreign relations of NATO
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NATO maintains foreign relations with many non-member countries across the globe. NATO runs a number of programs which provide a framework for the partnerships between itself and these nations, typically based on that countrys location. These include the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace, five EU member states, all who have declared their non-alignment with military alliances, are not NATO members, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Malta, and Sweden. Switzerland, which is surrounded by the EU, has maintained their neutrality by staying out of the bloc. All these countries, however, have joined the Partnership for Peace programme, armenia has maintained positive relations with NATO members and has signed up for the Partnership for Peace programme and the Individual Partnership Action Plan. According to a NATO diplomatic source in August 2009 some key officials at NATO headquarters in Brussels were pushing hard for engaging Azerbaijan on the membership question. Turkey, Romania, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, while President Ilham Aliyev has generally supported non-belligerency since his rise to power in 2003, Azerbaijan has hosted NATO military exercises and high-profile meetings in 2009. The unresolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh would present a major roadblock to membership, Azerbaijan made its policy of not being aligned with a geopolitical/military structure official when it became a full member of the Non-Aligned Movement in 2011. Cyprus is the only EU member state that is neither a NATO member state nor a member of the PfP program, turkey, a full member of NATO, is likely to veto any attempt by Cyprus to engage with NATO until the dispute is resolved. The winner of Cyprus presidential election in February 2013, Nicos Anastasiades, has stated that he intends to apply for membership in the PfP program soon after taking over. Finland participates in nearly all sub-areas of the Partnership for Peace programme, however, a 2005 poll indicated that the public was strongly against NATO membership. The possibility of Finlands membership in NATO was one of the most important issues debated in relation to the Finnish presidential election of 2006, the main opposition candidate in the 2006 election, Sauli Niinistö of the National Coalition Party, supported Finland joining a more European NATO. Fellow right-winger Henrik Lax of the Swedish Peoples Party likewise supported the concept, on the other side, president Tarja Halonen of the Social Democratic Party opposed changing the status quo, as did most other candidates in the election. Her victory and re-election to the post of president has put the issue of a NATO membership for Finland on hold for at least the duration of her term. Currently no political party explicitly supports NATO membership, another ex-president, Mauno Koivisto, opposes the idea, arguing that NATO membership would ruin Finlands relations with Russia. As such, Finland participated in the 2015 NATO-led Arctic Challenge Exercise, irish government policy for the deployment of troops to NATO-led missions requires that the missions be mandated by the United Nations, cabinet-backed and approved by Dáil Éireann. This is known as Irelands triple lock, public opinion in Ireland continues to favour a policy of neutrality in armed conflicts, and currently no major political party fully supports ascension into NATO. There has been, and continues to be, a number of politicians who support Ireland joining NATO, mainly within the centre-right Fine Gael party and it is widely understood that a referendum would have to be held before any changes could be made to neutrality or to joining NATO

57.
Partnership for Peace
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The Partnership for Peace is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization program aimed at creating trust between NATO and other states in Europe and the former Soviet Union,22 states are members. On April 26,1995 Malta became a member of PfP, on March 20,2008 Malta decided to reactivate their PfP membership, this was accepted by NATO at the summit in Bucharest on April 3,2008. During the NATO summit in Riga on November 29,2006, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia were invited to join PfP, Cyprus is the only European Union member state that is neither a NATO member state nor a member of the PfP program. Turkey, a member of NATO, is likely to veto any attempt by Cyprus to engage with NATO until the dispute is resolved. Christofias successor, Nicos Anastasiades, has publicly supported PfP membership for Cyprus, kosovo has described PfP membership as a strategic objective of the government. Kosovo submitted an application to join the PfP program in July 2012, however, four NATO member states, Greece, Romania, Spain and Slovakia, do not recognize Kosovos independence and have threatened to block their participation in the program. To be eligible to join, the Kosovan Armed Forces must be established

Partnership for Peace
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European NATO members (1994)
Partnership for Peace
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Partnership for Peace stamp from Moldova

58.
1957 Paris summit
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The 1957 Paris summit was the first NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Paris, France took place on December 16–19,1957 and this was only the second meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4,1949. At the time of the 1957 summit, NATO countries were at what The New York Times, the summit was considered to be the main American diplomatic response to the Russian launch of the orbiting Sputnik satellite. The unanimous agreement in principle to deploy intermediate range missiles in Europe was counterbalanced by the decision to emphasize diplomatic negotiations with the Soviets. The ratification of this strategy was one of the summits accomplishments. British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan was the leader of those pushing for an approach in dealing with threats to international stability. He argued in favor of two separate, but parallel agendas—one military and the other political, the summit discussions resulted in a dilution of the defiant posture the Americans had argued for NATO to adopt. EU summit G8 summit Thulegate Nash, Philip, the other missiles of October, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957-1963. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, the promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination. ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 White, Brian, britain, détente, and changing East-West relations

1957 Paris summit
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Map of NATO members

59.
1974 Brussels summit
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The 1974 Brussels summit was the second NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Brussels, Belgium took place on June 26,1974 and this twenty-fifth anniversary event was only the third meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4,1949. The organization faced a challenge, and the unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been. The 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon caused Gerald Ford to become the new head of the American government. The general discussions focused on the need to confirm the dedication of member countries of the Alliance to the aims, in addition, there were informal consultations on East-West relations in preparation for US-USSR summit talks on strategic nuclear arms limitations. NATO leaders signed of the Declaration on Atlantic Relations which had adopted by NATO foreign ministers in meeting in Ottawa a week earlier. EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R, the promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination. ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1974

1974 Brussels summit
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Map of NATO members

60.
1977 London summit
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The 1977 London summit was the 4th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in London took place on 10–11 May 1977 and this event was only the fifth meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. In this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been, EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R. The promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination, ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1977

1977 London summit
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Map of NATO members

61.
1978 Washington summit
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The 1978 Washington summit was the 5th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Washington, D. C. took place on May 30–31,1978 and this event was only the fifth meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4,1949. In this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been, EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R. The promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination, ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1978

1978 Washington summit
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Map of NATO members

62.
1982 Bonn summit
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The 1982 Bonn summit was the 6th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Bonn took place on June 10,1982 and this event was only the fifth meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4,1949. When the summit was held, there were sixteen members of NATO, in this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been. The Bonn Summit addressed many issues and discussed many topics, most notable of these topics was the accession of Spain to NATO, as the summit was held years after the fall of Francisco Franco. The summit also voiced concern to the threat the Soviet Union posed to members of NATO. EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R, the promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination. ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1982

1982 Bonn summit
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Map of NATO members

63.
1985 Brussels summit
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The 1985 Brussels summit was the 7th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Brussels, Belgium took place on November 21,1985 and this event was only the seventh meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4,1949. In this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been, generational change in the leadership of the Soviet Union brought Mikhail Gorbachev to the international stage. EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R, the promise of alliance, NATO and the political imagination. ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1985

1985 Brussels summit
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Map of NATO members

64.
1988 Brussels summit
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The 1988 Brussels summit was the 8th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Brussels, Belgium took place on 2–3 March 1988, in this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher counseled that it was probably a good idea to do business with him and these fears were minimized by the Soviet announcement that troops were going to be withdrawn from Afghanistan. The unilateral withdraw of 500,000 troops and 10,000 tanks from Eastern Europe sent a message of change. The general discussions focused on the need for a reaffirmation of the purpose, other informal meetings explored what NATOs posture should be in its objectives for East-West relations. The summits work was directed towards adoption of a blueprint for strengthening stability in the whole of Europe through conventional arms control negotiations, EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R. The Promise of Alliance, NATO and the Political Imagination, ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1988

1988 Brussels summit
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Map of NATO members

65.
1991 Rome summit
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The 1991 Rome summit was the 12th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Rome, Italy took place on November 7–8,1991, the United States, with Germanys support, proposed reconfiguring NATOs military. The re-constituted NATO-assets would be available for a broadly defined range of NATO-directed missions. The unanimous agreement with the essentials of these changes was officially confirmed at the Rome summit. Although the French joined in principle in agreeing to the reformation of NATOs military, the Alliances New Strategic Concept was published on the first day of the summit. The Rome Declaration on Peace and Cooperation was issued on the day of the summit. Terms of engagement, the United States and the European Security Identity, ISBN 978-0-275-96497-9, OCLC39384853 Cogan, Charles. The third option, the Emancipation of European Defense, 1989-2000

1991 Rome summit
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Map of NATO members

66.
1994 Brussels summit
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The 1994 Brussels summit was the 13th NATO summit bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in Brussels, Belgium took place on 10–11 January 1994, in August 1994, NATO air strikes were ordered in an attempt to protect UN safe havens and deter the Bosnia Serbs from further aggression. The general discussions focused on the reeaffirmation of Alliance readiness to carry out air strikes in support of UN objectives in Bosnia, the summits work was followed by publication of the Partnership for Peace Framework Document. The summit leaders endorsed the concept of Combined Joint Task Forces and other measures to develop the European Security, EU summit G8 summit Thomas, Ian Q. R. The Promise of Alliance, NATO and the Political Imagination, ISBN 978-0-8476-8581-3, OCLC36746439 NATO update,1994

1994 Brussels summit
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Map of NATO members

67.
2004 Istanbul summit
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The 2004 Istanbul summit was held in Istanbul, Turkey from June 28 to June 29,2004. It was the 17th NATO summit in which NATOs Heads of State, the summit consisted of four meetings. Due to Turkish government fears of a terrorist attack, security measures during the summit were tight and they especially feared a repetition of the Istanbul bombings of 2003 that killed more than 60 people. Their fear was proven by the arrest of 16 people in Bursa in early May on suspicion of planning to bomb the summit, on June 24 two bombs also exploded. One bomb went off in a bus in Istanbul killing 4 people, additionally, on June 25, explosives were found in a parked car at Istanbuls main airport. The Bosphorus Strait was also closed to oil tankers, the rail system was suspended. Nevertheless, a bomb or explosive devise blew up on an empty Turkish Airlines plane on June 29 as workers were cleaning it at the main Istanbul airport. Three of the workers were slightly injured, the extent of disruption caused by the security measures was criticized by several Turkish newspapers. The newspaper further added that people died because emergency services were unable to reach them, during June, there was a surge in demonstrations against the upcoming NATO summit, resulting in almost daily protests in Turkey. Throughout June, anti-NATO protestors from around the world gathered at Istanbul to demonstrate, a day before the summit, US president George W. Bush traveled to Ankara, the capital of Turkey for advance meetings with Turkish leaders. Then and during the demonstrations became larger and tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in the streets of Istanbul. On June 28, demonstrators tried to disrupt the NATO meeting by staging several simultaneous mass demonstrations around the city, riot police sprayed tear gas at anti-NATO demonstrators as protesters and police clashed in running street battles. At least 30 people, including five officers, were injured when anti-NATO protesters throwing stones. Some 20 persons were detained in these protests, the police broke up a smaller crowd, detaining at least six persons, in the Mecidiyeköy area when they tried to march towards the summit about 3 km to the south. June 2004 was arguably of the most intense months of summitry in the history of transatlantic relations, once the North Atlantic Council meeting on June 28 was concluded, a statement called the Istanbul Declaration, Our security in a new era was issued. In this statement the leaders summarized the conclusions of the discussions. Several days before the summit, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described Afghanistan as priority number one, until then ISAF only provided security in around the capital city Kabul and commanded one PRT in Kunduz. The 26 members agreed to contribute between them an additional 600 troops and three helicopters to the Afghan mission, the three helicopters came from Turkey, and had gone back within three months

68.
2006 Riga summit
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The 2006 Riga summit or the 19th NATO Summit was a NATO summit held in the Olympic Sports Centre, Riga, Latvia from 28 to 29 November 2006. The most important topics discussed were the War in Afghanistan and the future role, further, the summit focused on the alliances continued transformation, taking stock of what has been accomplished since the 2002 Prague Summit. NATO also committed itself to extend further membership invitations in the upcoming 2008 Bucharest Summit and this summit was the first NATO summit held on territory of a former USSR republic. The summit was held in the Olympic Sports Centre, Riga, roads in the center of Riga were closed down and parking was not allowed at the airport or at several roads, out of fear for car bombs. This enhanced ongoing Baltic Air Policing activities with additional aircraft, communications, the Council meeting was held on 29 November. Two rifts existed, one about the contributions to the war in Afghanistan. Before and during the summit US president George W, a number of NATO member states also pledged to provide additional assets, including fighters, helicopters, infantry companies as well as training teams that will mentor the Afghan National Army. The group was modelled on the one set up for the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s and it is difficult to see how NATO can succeed in stabilizing Afghanistan unless it is willing to commit more troops and give commanders more flexibility. The controversy surrounding the differences in contributions to Afghanistan indeed remained after the summit and they added that despite the earlier pleas for reinforcements or to have operational caveats removed, some countries, notably France and Germany, were still not heeding their requests. Besides the above discussion about contributions and caveats, the summit was noticed to paint a picture of the war in Afghanistan. For instance, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that progress had been made in Afghanistan. In his opinion, these challenges included besides military engagement mainly reconstruction, the second, more fundamental rift, concerned a discussion about whether NATO should form close relationships with countries far beyond NATOs borders, in particular Australia, Japan and South Korea. The United States and some other NATO members pressed for a relationship with these countries. R. Australia, South Korea and Japan are in Afghanistan and they have all been in Iraq in the Balkans. The idea of a global NATO however was opposed by France. The French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie summarized the position of France as follows, dilute the natural solidarity between Europeans and North Americans in a fuzzy entity send a bad political message, that of a campaign launched by the West against those who dont share their ideas. What a pretext we would offer to those who promote the idea of a clash of civilisations, as a consequence the debate continued after the summit. At the Riga summit, NATO members confirmed the role of NATO-led KFOR in the ensuring of a security environment there

2006 Riga summit
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Security measures in the streets of Riga.
2006 Riga summit
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Riga summit logo
2006 Riga summit
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Canadian forces in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The need for more troops in the south of the country was a major discussion point of the summit
2006 Riga summit
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NATO heads of state and government stand for the official portrait at the 2006 NATO Summit.

69.
2008 Bucharest summit
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The 2008 Bucharest Summit or the 20th NATO Summit was a NATO summit organized in the Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania on 2 –4 April 2008. Among other business, Croatia and Albania were invited to join the alliance, Macedonia was not invited due to its ongoing naming dispute with Greece. Georgia and Ukraine had hoped to join the NATO Membership Action Plan, protesters targeted the renewed determination of NATO to use nuclear weapons and NATOs backing of the US anti-missile shield. As said by Craig Kennedy in an introduction to the NATO Bucharest summit, the tensions in the Russia-NATO relationship. Romania received support from the United States, and U. S, under Secretary of State R. Romania has been a member of NATO since 14 March 2004. An invitation to join the Alliance was not extended to Macedonia, Greece had threatened on several occasions to veto the countrys NATO bid due to the longstanding naming dispute over the latters name. The last UN proposal before the summit was the name Republic of Macedonia, Athens argues that use of the name Macedonia implies territorial claims on its own region of Macedonia. Skopje denies this, citing constitutional amendments that specifically exclude territorial pretensions, NATO officials said the country could begin talks on joining the alliance as soon as it had resolved its dispute with Greece. According to politicians in Skopje, Athens has directly breached the Interim Accord, the governments that supported its membership bid argued that the country had completed the necessary reforms for membership, and that regional stability would be challenged if it did not join NATO. Senior officials in Skopje asserted that the country had fulfilled NATO requirements to join and was being punished for its identity, Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to the summit, and he arrived on the second day to participate in bilateral NATO-Russia talks. He opposed the US plans to deploy missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russia also opposed Georgia and Ukraines NATO membership bids. Romanian President Traian Băsescu said Romanias approach to the relationship with Russia was to leave behind the Cold War logic, U. S. President George W. Bush had a meeting at Neptun with President Băsescu about visas for one anothers countries and working on organising bilateral relationships. President Băsescu claimed Romania deserved to have relations with the US as it had sent troops to Iraq. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer opened the Securing our future expedition, the display Defence against terrorism was launched in the same exhibition and there were talks about NATOs involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and making it a success. President Bush and President Lech Kaczyński strongly supported Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO action plan members, however, he was opposed by the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The British judgment is that, although there was support for both Ukraine and Georgia, the question of when they joined should remain in the balance. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France are of the same mind, President Bush said he is satisfied with the NATO commitment to Afghanistan. Countries such as France and Romania promised to send troops to support the NATO mission in Afghanistan

70.
2010 Lisbon summit
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The 2010 Lisbon summit was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of NATO held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 19 and 20 November 2010. The member states adopted a new Strategic Concept, the alliances new ten-year plan following the expiration of the plan adopted at the 1999 Washington summit. In addition to accepting the Strategic Concept that addressed the alliances modern challenges such as terrorism and cyber attacks, the members met with President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai regarding the groups operations in the country. They agreed to withdraw combat forces from the country with a completion date of 2014. NATO reaffirmed their commitment to remain in Afghanistan to provide training and advice to Afghan forces, the summit took place in the Feira Internacional de Lisboa in Parque das Nações. It was the first summit presided over by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, source, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai, addressed the summit on 20 November. Armenia – Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Georgia has been at the Intensified Dialogue stage of accession to NATO since 2006, jordan – Prime Minister Samir Rifai. Malaysia – Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, new Zealand – Foreign Minister Murray McCully. Russia – President Dmitry Medvedev, was the first Russian to attend since strained relations because of the 2008 South Ossetia war, singapore South Korea Sweden – Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. United Arab Emirates United Nations – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Going into the summit, prior to the summit, Secretary General Rasmussen personally prepared a draft of the plan. Rasmussen said the goal of the new Strategic Concept must reconfirm Natos core task – territorial defence – but modernise how we do it, including cyber defence, a group of experts led by former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright drafted a report to help prepare the plan. At meetings prior to the summit, officials said that the plan was 98% there, during the first day of the summit on Friday 19 November, the member states agreed to the new Strategic Concept that will serve as the alliances mission plan for the next 10 years. The document addressed the importance of evolving threats to international security, the 11-page document is titled Active Engagement, Modern Defence. President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai addressed the summit on Saturday 20 November, Karzai had said that he wants NATO to return control of the country by the end of 2014. Before the summit, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the NATO Summit in Lisbon is set to mark the point for passing responsibility for security progressively to Afghan forces. While meeting with Karzai, the agreed to a gradual phase-out of combat operations until 2014. After that date, NATO states would continue to contribute to training and advising the Afghan National Army, Secretary-General Rasmussen said we will launch the process by which the Afghan government will take leadership for security throughout the country, district by district

71.
2014 Wales summit
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Such summits are sporadically held, and allow leaders and officials from NATO member states to discuss current issues of mutual concern and to plan strategic activities going forward. The 2014 summit has been described by Admiral James Stavridis as the most important since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the summit was hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. There were another 180 VIPs, and 4,000 delegates, the entrance to the venue was fronted by a full-scale replica of a Eurofighter Typhoon. World leaders met at the Celtic Manor, and informally at other locales in and they discussed ongoing events in the world, such as terrorism, cyber warfare, and other areas of national security interest to the member states. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a joint discussion with EU big four leaders and US President Barack Obama before the start of the Summit. The leaders of NATOs member states reaffirmed their pledge to spend the equivalent of at least 2% of their gross domestic products on defense, for countries which spend less than 2% they agreed upon that these countries aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade. In 2015, five of its 28 members met that goal, stützle said that the Russian Federation was not a military threat to NATO but criticized that new NATO members policies were not détente and negotiation with the Russian Federation. Protests, demonstrations and marches took place in Newport and Cardiff involving several hundred people, in both Newport and Cardiff, road closures and security measures, starting weeks in advance of the summit, created widespread disruption. Thirteen miles of security fencing,2.7 m high, was erected around the Newport hotel venue and ten miles of fencing put up around Cardiff city centre, businesses in the vicinity of security fencing in Cardiff reported a drop in trade by up to a third. This fencing was based on, and expanded, the National Barrier Asset which is held in reserve for similar events. Security included around 9,500 police officers patrolling the streets of the two cities, military helicopters including US Osprey V22s and the Royal Navy’s new £1bn Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan

72.
List of NATO Secretaries General
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The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is the chairman of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme decision-making organisation of the defence alliance. The Secretary General also serves as the leader of the organisations staff, as a matter of tradition, the post of Secretary General is held by a European. This structure is intended to balance the influence of the United States, the Secretary General is selected by consensus among the NATO member states. There is no process for the selection, instead, diplomats from the NATO states informally discuss the matter until a candidate is selected. The Secretary General typically serves for a term, but he or she may be asked to serve for a fifth year or longer. The current Secretary General is Jens Stoltenberg, who took office on 1 October 2014, the NATO countries selected the first Secretary General on April 4,1952. Since that time, twelve different diplomats have served officially as Secretary General and they are chosen from eight countries. The position has also been occupied temporarily on three occasions by an acting Secretary General in between appointments

List of NATO Secretaries General
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The 11th Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer meets President George W. Bush on March 20, 2006.
List of NATO Secretaries General
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Paul-Henri Spaak, the second Secretary General
List of NATO Secretaries General
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Manfred Wörner, the seventh Secretary General

73.
Military
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The task of the military is usually defined as defense of the state, and its citizens, and the prosecution of war against another state. The profession of soldiering as part of a military is older than recorded history itself, some of the most enduring images of the classical antiquity portray the power and feats of its military leaders. The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC was one of the points of Pharaoh Ramses IIs reign. A thousand years later, the first emperor of unified China, Qin Shi Huang, was so determined to impress the gods with his military might, he was buried with an army of terracotta soldiers. The Romans were dedicated to military matters, leaving to posterity many treatises and writings, as well as a number of lavishly carved triumphal arches. Issue, Possibly cognate with Thousand, cf. Latin and Romance language root word mil-) The first recorded use of the military in English. It comes from the Latin militaris through French, but is of uncertain etymology, the word is now identified as denoting someone that is skilled in use of weapons, or engaged in military service, or in warfare. As a noun, the military usually refers generally to an armed forces, or sometimes, more specifically. In general, it refers to the physicality of armed forces, their personnel, equipment, as an adjective, military originally referred only to soldiers and soldiering, but it soon broadened to apply to land forces in general, and anything to do with their profession. The names of both the Royal Military Academy and United States Military Academy reflect this, as such, it now connotes any activity performed by armed force personnel. Military history is considered to be the history of all conflicts. Military history has a number of facets, one main facet is to learn from past accomplishments and mistakes, so as to more effectively wage war in the future. Another is to create a sense of tradition, which is used to create cohesive military forces. Still another may be to learn to prevent wars more effectively, human knowledge about the military is largely based on both recorded and oral history of military conflicts, their participating armies and navies and, more recently, air forces. In the whole history of humanity, every nation had different needs for military forces, how these needs are determined forms the basis of their composition, equipment, and use of facilities. It also determines what military does in terms of peacetime, All military forces, whether large or small, are military organizations that have official state, and world recognition as such. Organisations with similar features are paramilitary, civil defense, militia and these commonalities of the states military define them. Another role of military personnel is to ensure a continuous replacement of departing servicemen and women through recruitment

74.
International organization
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An international organization is an organization with an international membership, scope, or presence. There are two types, International nongovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations that operate internationally. The UN has used the term intergovernmental organization instead of organization for clarity. The first and oldest intergovernmental organization is the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, International organizations also define the salient issues and decide which issues can be grouped together, thus help governmental priority determination or other governmental arrangements